


Yellow Eyed Monster

by DashFlintceschi



Series: Illnesses/Disabilities Alphabet Challenge [10]
Category: You Me At Six
Genre: Josh has gallstones, M/M, Max encourages Josh to fart, Mosh because Mosh, Mosh is mushy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-23
Updated: 2014-06-23
Packaged: 2018-02-05 22:11:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 891
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1834036
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DashFlintceschi/pseuds/DashFlintceschi
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Josh has gallstones.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Yellow Eyed Monster

**Author's Note:**

> J is for jaundice. Technically, it focuses more on the gallstones, but really, you can't have jaundice without something causing it, so, yeah. J was a bit of a bugger. The only things I could find starting with a J were jaundice and (delusional) jealousy. I started off with it being jealousy, but I was struggling too much with it, so I ended up doing jaundice instead.

When Max wanders into his and Josh’s bedroom, it’s with the intention of getting Josh between his thighs. It quickly becomes obvious that this isn’t going to happen, though, when he realises that Josh is lying on his side in the foetal position, clutching his stomach and whining softly in pain. Max immediately rushes to him, climbing onto the bed beside him carefully, doing his best to avoid jostling him and making it worse.

“What’s wrong, love?” He asks softly as he rubs Josh’s back soothingly.

“It hurts, and I feel sick,” he whines, and though he’s worried, Max can’t help the small smile that creeps up at his first thought.

“It might be wind, have you tried having a good fart?” He asks, and Josh laughs slightly, then groans at the pain it causes.

“This is different. It’s only on the right side, quite far up, and my shoulder hurts, too,” he whimpers, and Max makes a wordless noise of sympathy as he gently turns Josh over just a little bit, to get a better look at him. As soon as he sees Josh’s face, the whites of his eyes and his skin turning yellow, his eyes go wide as he gulps worriedly and fumbles to grab Josh’s mobile from the nightstand.

Josh is about to ask Max what he’s doing, when the operator answers.

“I need an ambulance for my boyfriend, he has severe pains in his upper right abdomen and shoulder, nausea, and jaundice,” Max rattles off to the man on the other end, and Josh understands why Max is panicking. The operator takes Josh’s name and their address, and Max hangs up after he’s politely declined the man’s offer to stay on the line with him until the ambulance gets there, and he’s thanked him profusely for his help. It only takes seven minutes for the ambulance to get there, but the pain increases steadily until Josh is sobbing in agony as Max lets in the paramedics and leads them up the stairs.

They take one look at him and start rushing, giving him gas and air to help with the pain as they quickly and gently lift him from the bed to the waiting stretcher and rush him downstairs and into the ambulance, Max at his side and squeezing his hand tightly the whole time. They both realise just how serious it is, when the driver turns on the sirens and heads towards the hospital, way above the speed limit.

When they get to A&E, they’re rushed into one of the curtained off ‘rooms’ that fill the A&E department straight away. The gas and air have lowered the pain to a dull ache, but as Max tells Josh, the jaundice has gotten a lot worse. When the doctor comes in, the first thing he does is something he calls a ‘Murphy’s sign test’. He asks Josh to breathe out, then places his hands on the top right hand side of Josh’s stomach, just below his chest, and asks him to breathe in again. Josh does as asked, but only manages to breathe in a little bit, before the same sharp pain from before comes back, making him hold his breath as he winces. The doctor does the same on the other side, only this time it doesn’t hurt Josh, which the doctor says means the test is positive.

The doctor gives Josh the mouthpiece of the gas and air again, and disappears for a few minutes, then comes back with an ultrasound machine. He sets it up as he asks Josh to pull his t-shirt up to his chest, then squirts some gel on the same place he’d pressed down on, apologises to Josh, as he’ll have to press down on it again with the probe, then gets to work, squinting at the screen.

After a few minutes, he nods to himself and, much to Josh’s relief, puts the probe away and hands Josh a paper towel to clean off the gel.

“You have gallstones. There are only three of them, so we’re going to break them up with lithotripsy, which is where we use a machine to apply acoustic pulses to break up the stones. It can be quite uncomfortable, so we’re going to sedate you, which means you’ll have to stay overnight, but since there are very few complications, which only around five percent of patients experience, you should be able to go home in the morning.”

Josh easily agrees to this, and they take him straight up. Once it’s over, about an hour later, Max is allowed to sit with him for a while. He’s still a bit dopey from the sedation, so he’s talking nonsense, mostly, until one thing he says catches Max’s attention.

“I’m going to ask you to marry me,” he mumbles, and Max stares at him.

“What?” He gasps, Josh nodding clumsily.

“I have the ring and everything, I’m just waiting for the right time to do it,” he tells him, and Max grins.

“Love, you could ask me while I’m sitting on the toilet, and I’d still say yes,” he insists, and Josh giggles, trailing off as he falls asleep. Max sits with him for as long as he’s allowed, deciding that this will be the only time he’ll ever be glad that Josh is sick.


End file.
